Learning to Cook with Marion Cunningham

Here at last is a much needed cookbook designed to instruct and inspire beginning cooks who don't know how to cut up an onion or scramble an egg--and who are reluctant to try. Marion Cunningham, today's Fannie Farmer--who embodies the best of American home cooking--is the perfect guide for the uncertain cook. Not only are her recipes simple, they are easy to master, because she writes in clear, straightforward language that anyone can understand. She addresses the needs and concerns of beginning cooks: how to shop, how to determine the quality of ingredients, how to store fresh produce and to ripen fruits, what basic kitchen utensils to use, and how not to waste food.With 150 recipes woven through eleven seductive chapters, such as Soup for Supper, A Bowlful of Salad, Thank Goodness for Chicken, and Extras That Make a Meal, Ms. Cunningham reveals the secrets of relaxed and efficient home cooking. She stresses the importance of thinking ahead--not just one recipe at a time. Today's dinner can be recycled into a lunch treat for tomorrow, Sunday's leftover polenta is fried up and topped with Parmesan for a weekday supper dish, small treasures in the fridge can make an omelet filling, a pasta garnish, or stuffing for a baked potato, and homemade biscuits can be transformed into strawberry shortcake.The side dishes she recommends are simple and are coordinated with the timing of the main dish. Often she gives us a recipe in which everything is cooked together--for instance, a chicken is roasted along with onions, carrots, and potatoes, so everything is ready at once, and when you're finished there's only one pan to clean; easy fish is baked over a bed of vegetables; a steak supper combines watercress, mushrooms, bread, and a delicious steak all in one.Above all, Ms. Cunningham demonstrates that the satisfaction of cooking lies not only in the good taste of all these wonderful home-cooked dishes but also in the pleasure of sharing them with friends and family. See (on the back of the jacket) what some beginning students, whose questions and concerns helped her to formulate this invaluable book, have to say about the rewards of learning to cook with Marion Cunningham.

Recent User Reviews

If learning how to cook is among your list of priorities, then purchasing Learning to Cook With Marion Cunningham should be just before it on the list. Ms. Cunningham enlisted the help of some very special people in writing this book, her students. What better input could be had than from a group of people who very much wanted to learn the basics of cooking?

Basic is the key here. Too often, people want to create marvelous gourmet meals without knowing much about the basics, or foundation, of cooking. The students ensured that nothing was taken for granted or that basic procedures, such as cutting an onion correctly, were well covered. Explanations were given that allowed even the most novice cooks too easily understand and-more importantly-carry out the task. Each chapter begins with an introduction or "lesson". One particular lesson called Salad Sense dealt with everything from purchasing through preparing right on to storing some very fragile leafy greens.

The recipes in all chapters are well planned and give step-by-step instructions. Sidebars give explanations and tips on cooking methods, preparation techniques and descriptions of less common ingredients. This is a book that students of cooking should consider.

Marion Cunningham has broken cooking down into "five simple truths" that will make any novice cook confident and relaxed with their ability. The quintessential cooking teacher has once again earned her marks.